Elderly

Tablet adoption is rising quickly, and has reached majority penetration in certain segments of the population, according to [pdf] results from a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. In the latest survey fielded last month, Pew found 34% of American adults reporting ownership of a tablet, almost double the 18% adoption rate it found in a survey fielded in April 2012. Looking at the demographics of tablet ownership, the latest study finds that adoption spikes in the 35-44 age bracket, and appears to rise alongside educational attainment and household income level. Read more »

61% of American cell phone owners can be classified as smartphone owners, according to a new study [pdf] from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. That's slightly higher than a recent comScore estimate of 58% mobile market penetration (though that was in the 13+ population, rather than the adult population), and leads the researchers to note that it means that 56% of all American adults are now smartphone owners. The study notes that smartphone ownership is higher among younger age groups, and similar increases within each group alongside household income level. Read more »

Gen Y B2B buyers are far more likely than their older counterparts to make online purchases, per results from Acquity Group's 2013 State of B2B Procurement Study. The survey of corporate buyers with annual budgets exceeding $100,000 found that 90% of those aged 18-35 make company purchases online. The propensity to shop online declined with age, to 68% of those aged 36-45, 45% of those aged 46-60, and just 29% among those aged over 60. The study follows research from hybris released late last year, which found 94% of B2B procurers believing suppliers need to invest more to make their e-commerce experiences as effective as consumer websites. Read more »

Fewer Americans are cutting their spending when compared to prior years, but most of those who are say that this is their "new normal," according to survey results from Gallup. Overall, 73% of Americans polled in early April said they have been spending either less (41%) or the same (32%) amount of money in recent months than they used to. While the 41% spending less is down from a high of 57% in February 2010, about three-quarters of those believe that this decreased spending will become a new normal pattern, rather than representing a temporary change in their spending patterns. Read more »

Graduation season is here, and Americans will shell out $4.6 billion to reward high school and college seniors, per results from a survey conducted for the NRF by BIGinsight. Gift-givers will spend about $94 on average, or $49 per recipient, down from last year's $100 average. Unlike other events and holidays tracked by the NRF, which have seen increases in spending this year, total projected spending on graduation gifts this year is down from last year's forecast of $4.7 billion. Read more »

Americans aged 18-34 are more likely than their older counterparts to prefer a range of entertainment types on-demand, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Stitcher. For example, among music listeners, 18-34-year-olds are twice as likely as 35-54-year-olds to prefer to listen always or mostly on demand (46% vs. 23%). And among TV viewers, 41% of those aged 18-34 prefer to watch always or mostly on demand, versus 21% of those aged 55 and older. Indeed, the desire to watch on one's own schedule has become a key driver of online video consumption. Read more »

56% of UK consumers say they would never use a company again if faced with a negative customer service experience, according to survey results from NewVoiceMedia. Beyond taking their business elsewhere, 29% would tell their friends and peers about their bad experience, while 19% would post a review online and 14% would complain on social media. Much as they'd punish companies for a bad service experience, though, these consumers would reward them for a positive one. 74% of respondents said a positive customer experience would lead them to be more loyal, and 71% would recommend the company to others. Read more »

In conjunction with a new monthly e-commerce tracking initiative, Shopzilla has released research from a survey of online shoppers conducted immediately after their purchases from the Bizrate Insights Network of more than 5,200 e-commerce retailers in the US and Canada. The data shows that buyers were most likely to have first seen their most recent online purchase while surfing around online (29%) or when looking to find something specific (25%). Beyond those top 2 points of inspiration, store emails (11%) emerged as a key source, cited by more respondents than magazines (8%), ads (6%), blogs and other web content sites (4%). Read more »

Some tablet owners are spending a significant amount of time watching video on their devices, details GfK in a new data release. According to the study, among tablet owners, Millennials (born 1977-1994) spend on average 23% of their total video viewing time (time spent watching video on any device, including TV, in a 7-day period) with their devices. Millennial tablet owners are far more engaged with video on their devices than other generations: Gen Xers (born 1965-1976) spend 16% of their video viewing time with them; Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) spend 11%; and pre-Boomers (born before 1946) spend 6%. Read more »

Consumers find some uses of personal information for loyalty programs to be "cool and exciting" (such as personalized discounts based on purchasing habits), but others exceed privacy boundaries and are simply "creepy and weird," according to [download page] a Maritz Loyalty Marketing study. The most invasive practice, cited by 52% of the study's respondents, is allowing programs to review their Facebook friends' status updates and photos to determine if they are eligible for rewards or special benefits based on shared interests. Read more »